In silver halide color photographic materials, particularly color photographic materials for picture taking, a light-sensitive material which exhibits a high sensitivity, an excellent graininess, an excellent color reproducibility, an excellent sharpness, a reduced fluctuation in the photographic properties during storage, and an excellent image preservability after processing has been desired.
Known types of yellow couplers for forming color photographic images include commonly known acyl acetanilide type couplers containing an active methylene (methine) group as disclosed in T. H. James, "The Theory of the Photographic Process", 4th ed., pp. 354-356. These dyes are disadvantageous in that they exhibit a low color density as well as a low dye forming rate. In particular, if these couplers are used as so-called DIR couplers, they must be used in a large amount because of their low activity, causing problems of dye stability, hue, cost, etc.
Malondianilide type couplers include those known couplers disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,149,886, 4,095,984, and 4,477,563, and British Patent 1,204,680. However, these couplers are disadvantageous in that they exhibit a low image preservability, particularly a low fastness to heat and moisture. In their spectral absorption, azomethine dyes produced from these couplers have a skirt on the long wavelength side of yellow. Thus, it has been desired to improve these couplers for better color reproducibility.
Further, a light-sensitive material which comprises a definite layer structure containing a high silver iodide content silver iodobromide and contains high average silver iodide content silver halide grains is proposed in JP-A-60-143331, JP-A-1-186938, JP-A-1-269935 and JP-A-2-28637 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application"). This proposal can provide a light-sensitive material which exhibits a high sensitivity and an excellent graininess. However, when combined with conventional yellow couplers, the light-sensitive material has some difficulty in image preservability after processing and in color reproducibility.